


Bonds Fated and Forged

by ByTheAngell (SomeLittleInfamy)



Category: Shadowhunters (TV)
Genre: Clary Fray & Alec Lightwood Friendship, Familiars, Gen, Witches, familiar dot, familiar magnus bane
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-12
Updated: 2020-05-12
Packaged: 2021-03-02 23:40:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,073
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24145264
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SomeLittleInfamy/pseuds/ByTheAngell
Summary: When Clary comes to Alec for training neither of them could imagine the changes in their lives that crossing paths would bring.
Relationships: Clary Fray & Alec Lightwood
Comments: 12
Kudos: 61
Collections: SHBingo





	Bonds Fated and Forged

**Author's Note:**

  * Translation into Русский available: [Узы обречены и разделены](https://archiveofourown.org/works/25892632) by [Ksencha](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ksencha/pseuds/Ksencha)



> For my Shadowhunters Bingo square: Witch/Familiar

Clary knows that witches are meant to feel a deep connection to their familiars. She knows this because it’s one of the first things she’s told while learning about her magic, hearing others speak of a bond that they feel in their souls, a truth they simply _know_ once they have them that they’re simply fated to be together.

When Clary begins to come into her powers - powers her mother never wanted her to know about, powers her mother _hid_ from her which left her defenseless and vulnerable when she came of age - she also comes across Magnus. Magnus, a cunning and clever familiar in the form of a black cat with a streak of red fur by his ear, markings on his toes that almost look like rings, and the most gorgeous golden eyes, who saves her time and time again. He keeps her out of trouble, whether it’s trouble she knows she’s getting into or trouble she stumbles across unwittingly, especially after her mother’s death as she learns to navigate this new world on her own.

He’s a wonderful familiar and they get along well. There’s no doubt he cares for her and her wellbeing and helps her in any and every way possible... but there’s something _missing_.

“Don’t worry Magnus,” she says, glancing up at the cat as he sits in the open window while she sits cross-legged on the floor, carefully chopping a root and peeling the petals one by one from a flower that took two days of careful searching to find. “I know you feel it too. I’m glad you’re here, and I care for you deeply, but I promise if you ever find the witch you’re meant to be with… I’ll let you go, no questions asked.” She can’t hide the sadness in her tone or the way she has to swallow down the lump in her throat at the idea of losing him, even if they aren’t destined to be bonded for life, because she’s grown so attached to his presence since he came into her life.

But she knows whatever is fated to be, will be, and that goes for both of them.

For now, fate has a long journey ahead to some witches willing to take her in and train her for a little while, to see how she does. Clary’s just as eager to prove herself as she is to get away from this too-quiet, empty home, and sets off with Magnus by her side.

\-------------

Alec gets along just fine with Dot. She’s quick, just the right amount of fun, and never hesitates to distract him from one of his darker moods when she notices his thoughts start to wander. Really, all things considered, he could have fared much worse when it came to the familiar that ended up given to him by his parents.

Except he knows how she came into his possession, and every time he remembers it sends a chill down his spine. His family, powerful individuals descended from a long line of renowned witches, are guilty of many things he himself would never sink to participating in. The taking of another’s familiar after a kill, for example, is one of those things. Dot hadn’t always been in their family, but rather was ‘acquired’ as a prize when her first owner was murdered, then passed down to his father, and then to him. Though the practice has been banned in recent years it doesn’t fix the centuries of damage caused.

“We’ll find where you belong, one day,” Alec promises her at night, alone in the dark of his room. “I appreciate you taking care of me until we do.”

He means it. He wants to undo every wrong his family has ever done, all of the prejudice and entitlement. If that means starting small and releasing his own familiar, no matter what the cost to himself, then that’s exactly what he’ll do. “You just say the word when you’re ready and I’ll figure it out.”

He knows it won’t be easy, but he has no doubt he can make it happen. He’ll have to because Alec Lightwood is a man of his word, no matter who that word is given to.

A fact that he’ll soon come to regret when he agrees to work with Clarissa Fairchild for the duration of her stay in his town.

\-------------

Clary is told she’ll be working with Alexander Lightwood on her draught brewing techniques, as it’s easily the most lacking of her skills. She’s too impatient, adding too much too quickly, not stirring long enough… honestly, what she needs is a lesson in taking her time, and even though she _knows_ that it doesn’t stop her from repeating past mistakes.

“At least he likes one of us,” Clary says after the first day, shooting Magnus a pointed look. “And don’t you dare try and deny it. I’ve never seen you take to anyone on a first meeting the way you took to him.”

Magnus, in a motion reminiscent of the ones he perpetrated during her readings earlier, comes to circle around her ankles, weaving in and out between her legs.

“He hates me,” Clary laments, moving around Magnus and throwing herself down onto her bed dramatically. “He rolled his eyes so far back into his head I thought they may very well stick there and called me incompetent at least four times.”

She can’t believe she came all this way only to learn only to be scolded and ridiculed at every turn. She thought the adventure somewhere new to study would be fun but instead wonders if she wouldn’t be better off back home after all.

\----------

“You’ve been weird all day,” Alec says to Dot. “Come on, what is it.”

The look the cat levels him at, before glancing back over at the cauldron he’d been using earlier, says it all.

“I was _not_ too hard on Clarissa. She can’t think the things she’s doing are okay or she’ll never stop doing them.” Alec sighs. “And why do you care anyway?”

Dot turns away from him, another telling gesture, and Alec’s previously annoyed frown turns into a slow smile.

“You found her _endearing,_ didn’t you? I should’ve known. You’ve always had a bleeding heart for the enthusiastic ones.”

Dot makes an indignant noise and turns her tail up at him, which only causes Alec to laugh.

“Well, you’re in luck, because I’m forced to work with her again tomorrow, and probably quite a bit after that as well. Can you believe they want her to participate in the ritual at the end of the month? Even _I_ might not be good enough to get her ready by then,” Alec sighs.

Dot shakes her head. He knows it’s meant to be disapproving but he isn’t about to let her get the last word in before he blows out the candles for bed.

“You’re right, of _course_ I’m good enough. The only question is: is she?”

He supposes they’ll find out soon enough.

\------------

Clary has never worked this hard at anything in her entire life. The ritual they’re meant to perform at the end of the month, one to bring protection to the people of the town for the upcoming year, requires a complex potion that all participants must provide a portion of. The end result of the combined draught is then split up amongst them to drink. The slightest error from any one individual could be the ruin of the entire event.

So yeah, there’s a lot of pressure.

Clary likes to think she’s rising to the occasion pretty well, all things considered, but it’s difficult not to get distracted when Alec’s familiar, Dot, stares at her intently throughout their sessions while her own familiar is much more inclined to spend his time around Alec than her, even if he still keeps enough of an eye out to wander back over and casually sit in front of something he notices she missed, or nudge her away when she moves back too quickly to continue her spellwork over a potion.

Magnus hasn’t conveyed anything to her yet but she can see what’s happening. There’s a bond between him and Alec, she can see the way their attention is drawn to one another, how the more Magnus approaches him with physical contact the more Alec seems to soften. It could be nothing, or it could be…

Well, she can’t think about that right now. Not with the focus she’s putting into her studies. Plus, Alec _has_ a familiar, a complication she _definitely_ doesn’t have time to figure out just then.

But she will, afterward, if Magnus wants what she thinks he wants.

\-------------

Dot gives Alec’s clothing a sniff and turns her nose up at him. Alec winces.

“Sorry,” he says, knowing that he must smell entirely of Magnus who barely left his side during Clary’s lesson that day. “You know I’m not going to give you up, not until _you’re_ ready. I made you a promise and I’m going to keep it.”

He wonders if she can read between the lines of what he’s saying, though. The connection he feels to Magnus… he’s never felt anything like that before. The more they’re around each other, the more contact he has, the more he can feel a tug at the very heart of him towards the familiar.

 _Clary’s_ familiar, he reminds himself. He doesn’t know what he’s thinking. No, scratch that, he _isn’t_ thinking because he can’t very well go snatching up someone else’s familiar no matter what he thinks he feels.

Which, he realizes the following day, won’t matter for long. After weeks of working with her it’s time for Clary’s final trial before the ritual and she comes so, so very close… the potion appears to be the proper color for the first few minutes, but after waiting an hour it turns a deep midnight blue. She added bitter almonds instead of sweet almonds, a potentially deadly mistake if not caught. Both varieties grow in the surrounding area and distinguishing one from the other was one of the first things he covered with her when she arrived.

Clary knows the gravity of the error she made, her sorrow so great over the realization that Dot even goes over to comfort her with a soft purr and a gentle nudge of her hand. Clary pulls her hand back quickly at the touch, looking between it and Dot with a strange expression.

“Did you feel that?” Clary asks the cat, and Alec eyes them both warily.

“Feel what?” he asks them, curious, but Clary doesn’t answer him, only watches as Dot backs away from Clary, suddenly alert. “Dot, you okay?”

Very uncharacteristically of her, Dot abruptly leaps out of the room. Alec doesn’t have time to figure out what all of that’s about, though. Not when he’s now forced to tell the others Clary isn’t ready to participate.

He finds it very unlikely he’ll be seeing her, or Magnus, around the village again.

\-------------

“I can’t believe he told them to keep me away!” Clary fumes, pacing back and forth in her room. She can hear the faintest hint of voices carried on the wind from the forest, at the clearing by the small creek she often goes to just to listen to the running water and clear her head. She should be there. She should be _helping._ Instead, she’s stuck at home, useless, and left to pack her bag to leave in the morning. Her studies were to culminate in assisting tonight, and she finds it highly unlikely Alec will want her around to continue when she’s already proven herself too inexperienced to be useful.

Magnus shares her restlessness, she notes, watching him also restlessly move about the room when he’s normally very content to lounge about while not actively engaged in something.

She finally gives up and tries to sleep. It’s nearly midnight after all, and there’s no point in being just as tired as the others tomorrow if she isn’t even participating in the ritual.

She’s nearly asleep when she hears something at her window. Thinking it’s the wind she ignores it until she hears Magnus scratching at the glass, meowing.

“Wha--” she says, blinking her eyes open to look over as they adjust to the dark.

Dot is outside the window.

Dot, who judging by the position of the moon outside, should still be at the ritual with Alec.

Clary bolts out of bed and opens the window to let her in. “What’s wrong? What’s happened?” Dot only gives a pained noise before motioning with her head towards the woods. “I’m not welcome there,” Clary reminds her, but she’s insistent, tugging at the sleeve of Clary’s nightshirt. “Alright, alright, I’m coming!”

Clary shrugs on a cloak and makes her way into the forest. She follows Dot, even though she already knows the way and where they’re headed -- except the sight that greets her isn’t at all one she expects to see.

Everyone, including Alec, is on the ground. She tries to shake him awake first, and then the girl next to him, but to no avail. Some are entirely passed out, others convulsing, others still conscious but gasping for breath.

“Okay. They’re alive, so that’s… good. Better than not alive,” Clary says out loud to herself in the dark. By the light of the flames around her she can see into the potion, which is turning from the bright, solid aqua it’s meant to be to a dark midnight blue.

She recognizes it instantly as her mistake from the day before… except this isn’t a mistake. One person’s spot from the circle is empty - someone _did this_ , intentionally trying to harm the people in this circle and curse their families in the process, and then fled.

Her instinct is to panic, her mind racing a million miles an hour and her own breathing coming as shallow as those on the ground. Magnus and Dot both circle Alec, nudging his cheek, his hand.

Alec. Alec needs her. She thinks of his time teaching her and his words come back instantly, advising her to slow down.

She takes a deep breath and assesses the situation.

“He told me about the almonds during one of our first lessons,” she says to herself, thinking out loud. “My notes!” She turns to leave and notices Magnus’ hesitation behind her to follow as he nuzzles Alec in concern.

“Stay with him. Both of you,” she tells them.

Clary takes off back through the forest, heading home as fast as she can while sending a constant stream of prayers that the others will be okay until she returns.

She grabs the stack of paper with her handwriting scrawled over it and thumbs through the pages until she finds what she’s looking for. A quick glance tells her she has most of what she needs here… a few ingredients are close enough to substitute. It’ll have to be enough.

Clary is a whirlwind as she opens bottles and rummages through her storage pantry, heating up some water in a cauldron to toss the beets and their roots in first, glancing at the other items she gathered. She’s tempted to dump it all in at once, knowing time is of the essence, but forces herself to wait. Patience. Alec always told her she lacked patience, and she needs it now more than ever. There’s no one to catch her mistakes if she messes up this time.

She takes her time adding in the arugula and the last of the erythrite stored in the small house she’s staying in while she’s here - she’ll have to leave something in their place later as repayment if she can’t find any to replace them with. The stones sink to the bottom as she stirs and speaks over the potion, clearly and with care. It may be the most focused she’s ever been as she stirs in the last of the ingredients, careful to measure, and triple-checking the leaves in front of her to be certain by the patterns of their veins and ridges she’s using the right one, even though they came from labeled jars.

Her foot taps impatiently as she stirs, and allows the thickening liquid several minutes to simmer despite her desire to pour it into a container and rush it back immediately. She isn’t going to let Alec down again.

Only when it’s done, the color exactly what it should be and the temperature cooled enough to drink, does she place it into several carefully sealed glass jars. She wraps them in cloth so they don’t break in her bag and take back off into the forest.

Magnus and Dot both bristle when she arrives, immediately kneeling down next to Alec and pulls out the first bottle.

“You have to trust me,” she insists. Dot comes up to her then, brushing against the side of her leg, and Clary feels it. That spark again like she felt the day before when Dot came to comfort her. It only lasts for a moment, where Clary imagines she can almost hear Dot’s thoughts encouraging her on, the comforting emotions transferring through the simple touch. “I--” Clary starts, wondering if that means what she thinks it means… but now isn’t the time. “Thank you.”

Clary takes a deep breath and opens the bottle, opening Alec’s mouth and tilting his head back to place ten drops into his mouth before closing it. His shaking slows, he gives a desperate gasp for air, and his eyes shoot open with the action before he turns, coughing and sputtering to his side.

Clary is positive she’s never felt more relieved in her entire life. Magnus is immediately curled up alongside Alec, comforting him, and Clary feels her heart ache at the sight. She’ll have to speak with Alec after all of this is over, she resolves.

She doesn’t have time to dwell on her familiar, not when she has 10 more people to administer the anecdote to before it’s too late. While Magnus stays with Alec, Dot trails close behind Clary.

Clary systematically goes around the circle, placing ten drops into the mouths of one of the poisoned witches before moving on to the next. Glancing behind her Clary feels more relief settle her nerves when the ones she saved start to come to, some standing if they’re well enough to.

Once Clary’s certain everyone has enough to keep them alive she gives the remainder to those who are the worst off, with stomachs turning from the illness brought upon them or too weak to stand just yet.

“It was her!” One of them speaks, pointing an accusatory finger at Clary. “She sabotaged us, to curse us out of spite for sending her away, and returned to cover her tracks! How else would she know to come here now?!”

Clary freezes at the charge, but as the angry man comes towards her Dot jumps in front of her and hisses a warning that stalls his movements. Clary knows she’s an outsider. She knows she’s a screw-up. But how could they think she’d do this to them? To anyone?! The accusation leaves her shaking and she has half a mind to flee when Alec speaks up behind her.

“She _saved_ you. She saved _all_ of us,” Alec defends her, looking around. “If you want the one responsible you only have to look and see who isn’t here, poisoned with the rest of us.”

The others, for the first time, take stock of who is present.

“Victor,” one man utters in disbelief.

“I believe you owe Clary an apology,” Alec continues pointedly. “And more than that, some gratitude.”

The man looks down at the ground, muttering, “Yes, well… thank you, Clary.”

“I do wonder how you knew…?” Alec asks, but kindly, unlike the demand from before.

“Dot came and got me. When I found you all the potion had turned a deep blue… just like my mix-up from yesterday. So I knew what to make to counter it.”

Alec shakes his head in disbelief. “I suppose everything is fated to happen for a reason, isn’t it?”

The others begin to pick up the pieces of the failed ceremony, to try and salvage what is left and hope it’s enough to carry them through the upcoming year. Clary helps the best she can, and by the time the sun begins to rise she sits down on a rock, her thoughts heavy as she knows what she needs to do before she moves on.

While she’s sitting there contemplating her next move, Dot comes over and jumps into her lap. Clary feels it again - that spark of calming warmth that seems to spread through her entire body this time.

Alec stares at her, eyes wide. “She’s never done that before. She barely lets _me_ pick her up.”

Clary didn’t even pick Dot up, Dot came to _her_.

“You feel it, don’t you?” Alec continues. Clary expects to see anger or betrayal in his eyes when she looks up at him but there’s only a strange softness there instead. “I always told her I’d help her find the witch she’s meant to be with… I think it might be you.”

“I think it might be, too,” Clary admits. It feels exactly how she imagines the bond should feel, the way she’s heard it described when someone finds their destined familiar.

“I know it’s uncommon to have two familiars, and you already have Magnus, but… I’d be grateful for it if you’d consider having her,” Alec says, his voice solid and resigned even though it’d leave him without a familiar of his own, a risky move considering the ill-fortune already abound here.

“I wouldn’t be too sure about Magnus,” Clary says, watching the way Magnus sits between the two of them, obviously trying _very hard_ not to crowd Alec after the overwhelming events of the night but not wanting to be too far from him, either. “I saw the way you two were together during my lessons. And tonight, when you were ill… I don’t think I’ve ever seen him more worried. And I get myself into _plenty_ of trouble to worry over,” Clary adds.

Alec looks down, his feet kicking at a piece of stone. “I thought there might… but I didn’t want to be presumptuous. And that isn’t why I brought up things with Dot. Even if you take her, I wouldn’t expect you to-”

But Magnus lets out a dramatic yowl that cuts Alec off, and while Alec startles at the sound Clary knows it all-too-well and only laughs as Magnus walks over and sits directly on top of Alec’s left foot.

“I don’t believe I have much of a say in the matter,” she says with a small smile. “Looks like he made his choice.”

Alec looks uncertain, nervous almost, but Clary only gives him an encouraging nod. He got along so well with Magnus before, what was he suddenly afraid of?

“I always knew he wouldn’t be with me forever,” Clary says, though her voice does choke up a bit as she says it. They may not have been soul bonded, but she loves Magnus, and she’s going to miss him more than she cares to admit, even if he’s probably grateful to find himself a more responsible, grounded witch he won’t have to pull out of trouble every five seconds.

She wonders if Dot, after a little while with her, will change her mind on wanting to stay, but she doesn’t voice that concern aloud as she gently shifts Dot off of her lap and stands. “Take care of each other, will you?” Clary says, turning to leave.

“Where are you going?” Alec asks, confused.

“To get some rest before my journey back home. I didn’t pass my training, I couldn’t take part in the ritual… my month of training here is up and I see no reason they’d want to keep me around,” Clary points out.

She can see Alec realizing the truth of her words as he speaks, as if after everything that happened he forgot _why_ she wasn’t here with the rest of them in the first place tonight.

“C’mon, Dot,” she says, turning to leave before Alec can humor her with false comforts. She’s exhausted and she’s more than ready for this day to be over.

\-------------

Alec watches Clary walk out of the clearing with a frown. Magnus makes a sad noise at his feet and Alec bends over to pick him up, getting a better look at his golden eyes which are wide with worry.

“I know,” he says. “But she’s right. If she’d been part of the ritual, her magic aligned with ours, then maybe… but…” he sighs. “You do want to stay with me, don’t you? Because if you’d rather go back with her I’d understand,” Alec asks Magnus.

Never in a million years did he imagine his disastrous first encounters with Clary would result in him finding Dot’s destined witch, or his own fated familiar. He thought from the very first time he met Magnus that there was a chance, but he pushed it away every time, never daring to imagine what he felt was shared. But now…

Now, watching Magnus settle in his hold again, he knows that it’s mutual. That Magnus is here to stay, for good, drawn to Alec as much as Alec is drawn to him. And Dot has the same, a true blessing for them both, as unusual and bittersweet as the trade had been.

“Alright,” Alec says, feeling relief at the confirmation. He waits, using the excuse of going over the space in the clearing one last time so that Clary would be far enough ahead of him that they wouldn’t need to make awkward small talk on the way back. She’s already inside when he passes by the home she’s staying in, but the additional relief he feels at that is gone the moment he hears the sound of barely-stifled crying come through an open window.

“I know, Dot,” he hears Clary’s voice say from inside as he forces his feet onward, trying not to linger and eavesdrop. “I don’t want to leave, either. I thought I might find a home here…”

Alec’s heart sinks. He knows from casual conversations during their work that Clary’s mother died recently, that she’s had no one to properly train her, nowhere to stay besides a home that’s too painful to go back to. The thought of her starting over, of others being dismissive and cruel because they don’t yet know her to trust her… the way the others were back in the woods… the way Alec himself was a bit at the beginning of the month, he realizes with a start.

He has to do something.

His pace quickens, but not to avoid lingering by Clary’s temporary home as he rushes to make a few hasty, and likely ill-advised, house calls to some already angry and sleep-deprived elders.

Three hours later Alec is practically swaying on his feet with every step he takes back towards the outskirts of the town where Clary, with any luck, will still be. He doesn’t have time to sit down and rest as much as he needs to and pushes himself to continue, getting there just in time to see her tossing the last of her personal possessions into her bag.

“Clary, wait,” he says.

“Are you alright?” she asks, her concern at his fatigued appearance immediate. “Is it the poison? I don’t have any erythrite left here but I can find more, or go get help-”

“No, I’m fine,” Alec says, her worry bringing a small smile to his face. Even after thinking he’d abandoned her that easily over her previous failures, here is that kind soul and caring heart willing to go out of her way to help him again. “Just tired. May I sit?”

“Of course,” Clary says, pulling out a chair for him. “It’s been hours since we left, why haven’t you rested? And why are you smiling? You look delirious, are you sure you’re okay?”

“I haven’t slept,” he says, that small smile growing wider now in anticipation of his news. “Because I was too busy getting approval for you to stay.”

Clary freezes. “To… stay? Here?”

Alec nods. “We may have to find you a new home when the Herondales return from their travels, but… here, generally speaking, yes.”

“For how long?” Clary asks warily.

“I know you don’t have anyone to teach you just now, so I requested you stay so I could continue your lessons. And with how much you have to learn...” he says, with just the slightest hint of teasing to his tone. “It could take a month… or two… or twenty. If, of course, you’d like to stay.” Alec knows what he overheard the night before, but Clary doesn’t, and it wouldn’t do to presume on something not meant for his ears.

He hopes he isn’t overstepping here. Alec realizes at that moment he actually _hopes_ she wants to stay.

His life has been far from easy since Clary came into it, but it’s been interesting for certain. She has a lot of natural talent and potential, and, though he’d never admit it to her face, he started to warm up to her quite a bit these past few weeks.

Clary’s eyes shimmer and she moves forward to throw her arms around him in a hug, as awkward as that action is while he sits in the chair still.

“You really mean it?” She asks as she pulls back.

“I really mean it,” Alec promises. “You have a home here as long as you’d like it.”

He thinks of fate and the people who cross paths for a reason. Clary brought him Magnus, she saved his family, his friends, she was a perfect fit for Dot. Clary isn’t the sort of person you allow to leave and never return without a second thought - she’s the sort of person meant to make an impact, a difference.

Her presence here is a change, for certain, but it’s a change worth taking a chance on.

“Thank you,” she says, the words tumbling out in what sounds more like laughter than speech. “You won’t regret this.”

No, Alec agrees silently to himself. He doesn’t think he will.

**Author's Note:**

> (Find me on [Tumblr](http://bytheangell.tumblr.com) and also on [Twitter](http://www.twitter.com/By_The_Angell)! <3 )


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